Heh, it would be pretty awesome if the lore behind expansion classes in games unfolded through the main storyline like this. As opposed to say, having always been around but we just weren’t aware of them.
There won’t be a grave for him. Adventurer and all that.
Ergo it’s not possible for him to make grave mistakes.
Dragon-belly-mistakes, giant-troll-cudgel-mistakes, use-the-pointy-side-you-idiot-mistakes, yes, but not grave mistakes.
So now E-Merl’s gonna be like, “Hey, what about my love interest!?” And GD’s gonna be like…. *shrug*.
I have to admit, I fuckin’ hate resurrections because I find they cheapen the narrative and water down any intended feeling of threat or danger and this isn’t even Byron’s first helping of the Lazarus cake (leave some for others man). I do hope this is the last one or that there’s at least some kind of twist or dire consequence for it.
I don’t think that was ever a corpse per se, though. Byron’s “body” has been around a WHILE without decomposing at all. It’s like it was in some kind of stasis while was trapped between life and death.
No more so than any other dead person, though, the way Gravy asplained it. Sure, getting your katra re-meatified is great, but probably has some huge downsides when your meat has been laying dead for a week.
Keep in mind, they’re jacked into a videogame and death isn’t a big deal, what happened to Rachel though, that’s pretty messed up. I’m just wondering how Bandit and the crew are going to react to Scipio still being up and about considering it’s been established that NPCs carry on living even when their operators aren’t around.
So, you know, don’t feel upset when people die, there’s more stuff going on behind the scenes.
It’s possible that they’ll ALL be continuing as NPCs for all intents and purposes, being off the grid and all, and the players might not realise. Unless they feel they NEED to log in for their investigation, it’d be too much of a risk to have their location revealed by logging into a game.
Or it could just be that it’s advertised as part of the game’s programming that PCs continue as NPCs when the players are offline. There’s just supposed to be safeguards in place to prevent characters from dying while the player is offline.
It was implied that the dead never needed the mystics for that in the first place and managed just fine before they proclaimed themselves spiritual gate keepers. Whether the mystics ever helped much and in what way is hard to say but Gravy basically just decided they’re obsolete which ironically validates Iver’s viewpoint to some extent.
Fair point though Sepia started getting bloody only recently while people in Arkerra have been dying for a long time so I wouldn’t say it’s an established theme. But maybe it will become one.
IIrc, after the first bout of resurrections GD said he’d never be able to do it again, that it’s heresy, etc. So if doing it again and breaking the rules was always going to deprive him of it it’s not really a price, is it? Alternative would’ve been to simply never use it which equates to not having it in the first place.
Most I can see is GD losing his mystic powers so no more talking to the dead, no ghost arrows, etc. which is something I suppose.
I very much expect consequences. We still haven’t been told why the Mystics abhor doing resurrections and was expecting to have that question resolved. They keep talking about the will of the cosmos, sacrifice and whatnot, but not what this really means in concrete terms. Either we’ll find out when Gravedust explains it to Byron or at an appropriately dramatic moment. I don’t see Byron just letting it sit unanswered though.
My interpretation was that Arkerra was the Flatland-style map in the centre, whereas the spherical planet-style worlds appear to include Cyberia and possibly Earth.
As for the other three worlds – I wonder how many other MMORPGs Hurricane Software has created, and whether each has its own world in whatever multiverse contains Arkerra and Cyberia?
I wuz thinkin. Maybe Gravey can go backwards into sepia. like Dedalus goes forth from sepia. and bring back Ferris and people that Just Joe kills. This kind of thinking of course is why Campbell and Khan write this shit and I don’t.
Death (annoyed): “‘DEFY DEATH’, HAR HAR HAR. I SHOULD GET ME A SWING DOOR. STAY HERE OR GET OUT, MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY, YOU’RE LETTING THE COLD IN!”
Wait, he really did shoot the arrow just to bind himself to it and ride it back to Earth?
I really should have bothered to joke that he would do that earlier.
Guess the Savasi Necromancer class is coming in the next expansion.
Heh, it would be pretty awesome if the lore behind expansion classes in games unfolded through the main storyline like this. As opposed to say, having always been around but we just weren’t aware of them.
Guild Wars 2 did that. Rytlock got trapped in the Mists during the story, and when he came back in the expansion he brought the new class with him.
Not perfectly of course, since revenants would still start at the beginning, far before Rytlock ever took a dip into the Mists.
The mists exist outside of time though, right? Between worlds? So Rytlock could be both the first and not the first . . .
Time is weird.
Be sure to buy Van Morrison’s accompanying song for this strip, “Out of the Mystic!”
Gravedust … demystified.
I don’t know, I think he just went ultra-mystic.
meta-mystic.
Hopefully in the future he doesn’t think of this as his greatest mystake.
I think you mean his gravest mystake.
There won’t be a grave for him. Adventurer and all that.
Ergo it’s not possible for him to make grave mistakes.
Dragon-belly-mistakes, giant-troll-cudgel-mistakes, use-the-pointy-side-you-idiot-mistakes, yes, but not grave mistakes.
So now E-Merl’s gonna be like, “Hey, what about my love interest!?” And GD’s gonna be like…. *shrug*.
I have to admit, I fuckin’ hate resurrections because I find they cheapen the narrative and water down any intended feeling of threat or danger and this isn’t even Byron’s first helping of the Lazarus cake (leave some for others man). I do hope this is the last one or that there’s at least some kind of twist or dire consequence for it.
You seem to be forgetting the regrettable fact that the beast did not kill Rachel. It unmade her, utterly.
Gravedust can’t really do anything about that.
True though I wouldn’t expect Merl to be so rational about it.
E-Merl is rational to the point of being out of character.
Dude had to get drunk to even do something stupid.
Gravedust sits down at a terminal and runs an undelete utility…
But it’s a Mac! Foiled again.
Payet Best next, OK? Seems like Gravy needs a corpse to pray over so yeah no Rachel no Best.
I don’t think that was ever a corpse per se, though. Byron’s “body” has been around a WHILE without decomposing at all. It’s like it was in some kind of stasis while was trapped between life and death.
It’s been a while for us, but how much for them?
And of course, Byron’s body appears to have been mummified….
No more so than any other dead person, though, the way Gravy asplained it. Sure, getting your katra re-meatified is great, but probably has some huge downsides when your meat has been laying dead for a week.
Keep in mind, they’re jacked into a videogame and death isn’t a big deal, what happened to Rachel though, that’s pretty messed up. I’m just wondering how Bandit and the crew are going to react to Scipio still being up and about considering it’s been established that NPCs carry on living even when their operators aren’t around.
So, you know, don’t feel upset when people die, there’s more stuff going on behind the scenes.
It’s possible that they’ll ALL be continuing as NPCs for all intents and purposes, being off the grid and all, and the players might not realise. Unless they feel they NEED to log in for their investigation, it’d be too much of a risk to have their location revealed by logging into a game.
Or it could just be that it’s advertised as part of the game’s programming that PCs continue as NPCs when the players are offline. There’s just supposed to be safeguards in place to prevent characters from dying while the player is offline.
Hate ressurections all you want, I still wish we could rez Prince… :/
Wipe away that tear little dove and let me kiss it better. No matter how sad this pop life makes us we can’t gett off.
Tell me that 1999 times.
Barbara Gordon should still be paralyzed.
That said, I’m surprised DC kept that storyline going for as long as they did.
As far as I know, this is the dire consequence for it! Mystics are no longer around, no longer able to help the dead find peace
It was implied that the dead never needed the mystics for that in the first place and managed just fine before they proclaimed themselves spiritual gate keepers. Whether the mystics ever helped much and in what way is hard to say but Gravy basically just decided they’re obsolete which ironically validates Iver’s viewpoint to some extent.
It’s wise to consider that our enemies may have insights that we don’t want to see.
I generally agree, but I think it does make a useful contrast to the sepia world deaths, which are both permanent and messy.
Fair point though Sepia started getting bloody only recently while people in Arkerra have been dying for a long time so I wouldn’t say it’s an established theme. But maybe it will become one.
It appears that Gravedust may have just given up his ability to bring people back from the dead.
IIrc, after the first bout of resurrections GD said he’d never be able to do it again, that it’s heresy, etc. So if doing it again and breaking the rules was always going to deprive him of it it’s not really a price, is it? Alternative would’ve been to simply never use it which equates to not having it in the first place.
Most I can see is GD losing his mystic powers so no more talking to the dead, no ghost arrows, etc. which is something I suppose.
I very much expect consequences. We still haven’t been told why the Mystics abhor doing resurrections and was expecting to have that question resolved. They keep talking about the will of the cosmos, sacrifice and whatnot, but not what this really means in concrete terms. Either we’ll find out when Gravedust explains it to Byron or at an appropriately dramatic moment. I don’t see Byron just letting it sit unanswered though.
I mean, they are in a video game. Respawns are part of the experience.
Certain events in Sepia world, though… Well.
Oho, are you implying that Byron is Gravedust’s love interest?
Nice, but I don’t ship it. Syr Byron for ever.
I see Earth and Cyberia hurtling by. And three unknowns. How interesting.
Yeah ok. I been trying to make sense of panel 3. I think you figgured it out with one of the worlds being Arkerra.
My interpretation was that Arkerra was the Flatland-style map in the centre, whereas the spherical planet-style worlds appear to include Cyberia and possibly Earth.
As for the other three worlds – I wonder how many other MMORPGs Hurricane Software has created, and whether each has its own world in whatever multiverse contains Arkerra and Cyberia?
Glad I wasn’t the only one who caught that.
You did the right thing Gravedust, now to prove it.
Seems like Gravedust rerolled his class.
Well. Had I gold stars to give, they’d go half-groaningly, and with as much of a sage nod and knowing smile as possible – to the alt text!
Sadly. I have only slow claps to give, but the accompanying chat macros abide.
I wuz thinkin. Maybe Gravey can go backwards into sepia. like Dedalus goes forth from sepia. and bring back Ferris and people that Just Joe kills. This kind of thinking of course is why Campbell and Khan write this shit and I don’t.
Could Gravy maybe now go bring Prince back?
(Psst! Too down man! Too soon!)
*soon
I can’t help but think “MUMMY” when I see Byron trying to move in the wrappings.
They look utterly horrified in the last panel. “NO! This is WRONG! We were NOT supposed to end up back HERE!”
Maybe they ended up in the wrong bodies. What a Freaky Friday.
You know, Sonecutter Moonchild’s name takes a very different vibe if you permutate it to Moonstone Childcutter.
Sure hope they do something about Byron’s gaping wounds asap.
I’m more worried about that little bit of Berserker still left near his (spiritual) heart.
Byron, explaining: “I got better!”
Reasons like this are why Gravedust is number two on my favorite characters list. Only beaten by Byron.
*moments like this
I’m in typo hell. :(
Death (annoyed): “‘DEFY DEATH’, HAR HAR HAR. I SHOULD GET ME A SWING DOOR. STAY HERE OR GET OUT, MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY, YOU’RE LETTING THE COLD IN!”
Wait, he really did shoot the arrow just to bind himself to it and ride it back to Earth?
I really should have bothered to joke that he would do that earlier.
OK, I have to admit that I saw this coming….but I still think that Rachel didn’t need to be excluded from the Patreon banner. :P
Gravedust is like “my people need me, I must go.”
Hyes
https://youtu.be/8J-i0Q6fT-E?t=7m13s
A straight shot all the way home.
oh geez previous page I thought Gravedust was going to sacrifice himself.
so glad he didn’t do that.
Huh. Not much to say here other than…
FUCK YES! GO, GRAVY!!!
Love the Adventure’s Way. Defy death wherever possible, as long as possible.
Asking for forgiveness? Forgiveness for what?
For doing what needs to be done to save the world?
Bugger that, Gravy.
Tell ‘me straight, and if they don’t like it, explain it.
If they still don’t like it, flip ’em off.